UN Questions Timing of Congo’s Decision to Block Broadcaster

By Michael J. Kavanagh -
Dec 3, 2012

The United Nations questioned the
timing of a decision by Democratic Republic of Congo’s media-
monitoring council to cut the signal of UN-backed Radio Okapi
amid a rebellion in the east of the country.

The government suspended transmissions after the
broadcaster failed to submit a program schedule to the Superior
Audiovisual and Communications Council as required by law,
Chantal Kanyimbo, the council’s reporter, said by phone
yesterday from the capital, Kinshasa. The UN said it wasn’t
notified of the decision in advance.

“This is particularly unfortunate given the current very
sensitive and difficult situation” in eastern Congo, Roger Meece, the special representative of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in Congo, said in an e-mailed statement. “We find the
timing and lack of notification by the CSAC puzzling and
regrettable. We will be registering an official protest of this
action with Congolese authorities.”

Congo’s government is struggling to end a rebellion that
began in April in resource-rich North Kivu province. On Nov. 20,
a rebel group known as M23 captured the provincial capital of
Goma and forced Congolese soldiers to flee. M23 pulled out of
the trading hub on Dec. 1 in anticipation of negotiations with
Congolese President Joseph Kabila. M23 says the government
hasn’t lived up to a 2009 peace agreement, and that Kabila won
re-election last year by fraud.

Radio Okapi, based in Kinshasa and which is also backed by
the Swiss Hirondelle Foundation, has broadcast for 10 years
across the Central African nation. Congo is the largest country
in sub-Saharan Africa by landmass with a population of about 70
million.

Kanyimbo said the decision to suspend Radio Okapi was
technical. “This has absolutely nothing to do with the
situation in the east,” she said.